Sometimes It's Harder to Care: a Shirkers Tale
by InoShikaCho
Summary: Everyone always said I was a genius but only two people ever saw more, those two said I was kind and caring but to be honest sometimes it's harder to care, this became even more clear after she died. main ShikaIno, later SasuSaku,NaruHina,NejiTen
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** Okay this is my first ever story, so please be kind. I have worked really hard on it and no it is not a oneshot I actually have it planned out for several chapters but I'm still typing them in micrsoft word (I'm not very fast when it comes to typing) if I get some reveiws that may speed up the process.

**Disclamer:** I do not own Naruto, if I did Sauke and Kabuto would be gay, oh wait they already are! HAHAHAHA! (just kidding about Sasuke, personaly I think he is ment to be with Sakura)

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Chapter 1: Why Me?

"Damnit!! Why does every thing have to be so troublesome?" I thought aloud as I gathered my worthless possessions. I'm Shikamaru Nara, the laziest ninja in town. My I.Q. is over 200 and my head is shaped like a pineapple. Yeah that's all I'm saying.

I looked around my room for anything I had forgotten. I noticed my shuriken pouch on the nightstand. How did I miss that I thought as I picked it up. Looking inside it I realized it was full of candy bar wrappers. Crap this is what I get for never throwing anything away.

I promptly turned the pouch upside down, not thinking. That probably wasn't a great idea I realized as all the contents fell out on to the floor. Something else fell out too. It hit the floor hard and rolled under my bed.

"Ahh man this is such a drag" I said. The item was my special kunai from the sand village. I dropped to the floor and reached under my bed trying to find the kunai. After rummaging around for a bit my hand found a familiar object. Grabbing it I pulled it out and stood up. It was a picture frame. A pretty blond girl with four pigtails smiled up at me. Sighing deeply I sat down on my bed. I sighed again I seemed to be doing that a lot lately. I looked at the picture and lay back on my bed. Temari why? Why did you have to go get in that car crash you knew that good for nothing guardian of yours was drunk?

That was the night I stopped caring. The girl I loved dead, my life was over. I just gave up, unfortunately my parents noticed. So now they're sending me to some boarding school for kids with problems instead of the regular high school I was supposed to attend. That was why I was packing.

"Shika-honey are you ready to go?" my mom yelled.

"I told you not to call me that, but yeah I'm ready." I answered grabbing my old duffle bag and slinging my backpack over my shoulder. I took one last look around my room knowing I wasn't going to see it for a long time. The duffle was heavier than I thought it would be I could barley lift it. I dragged it to the top of the stairs and let gravity do the rest. Again probably not one of my better ideas, I've been kind of out of it since the whole Temari thing.

I slid down the banister, something normally forbidden but I didn't really care. I grabbed the old duffle and dragged it to the door. My parents were waiting to see me off to my first day of mental school yippee. "Oh I'm going to miss you so much Shikamaru!" cried my mom as she hugged me.

I was about to say something clever like " if your going to miss me so much don't send me away" , but I caught a glance from my dad. They truly believed this was best so I just said " yeah I'll miss you too" In a halfhearted way.

A loud honking noise came from outside. "There's your carpool son: my dad said. My mom finally stopped hugging me and went off somewhere to cry about losing her little man. I felt bad, I always do when I make someone cry even if it's not my fault like now. My dad turned to me "Shikamaru I know you think this is unfair, but we don't know what else to do. This might help you forget about that Tamarine girl."

"Her name was Temari dad" I said with a hint of anger in my voice but it was gone when I spoke again "I know you're just trying to help."

The honking noise was getting louder." Okay. Okay he's coming" my dad yelled out the window then turned back to me "you better get out there before I start balling too" he said already tearing up.

"Oh dad don't. What kind of example would that set?" I asked trying to hold my own emotions back. "You're right son" he said hugging me. I was shocked my old man never did anything mushy like that. Then suddenly himself again he dragged me out to the waiting van.

Already in the van were my friends Choji Akimichi and Sasuke Uchiha. Choji was eating a bag of chips and he already had several empty bags around his feet. Choji has had a binge eating disorder since he was 5. Sasuke on the other hand had his own fan club of annoying girls. Sasuke always looked cool with his raven hair and onyx eyes but unfortunately for all his fan girls Sasuke was born without emotions or a personality. "Hey Shikamaru" said Choji through a mouthful of chips "sit by me.

I climbed into the van and through my stuff in the back where everyone else had. "Ow!" said a voice from the back. "What was that?" I asked the driver, Itachi Uchiha. Sasuke's brother is probably the quietest guy I've ever met (usually). "That's probably Naruto" Sasuke said "he moved here last May." "Never met him." I replied.

"Oh well now you know him he'll probably wake up soon." said Choji who was looking through his bag for more food. With that the van began to move. In the seat behind me a blond guy wearing an orange jumpsuit sat up rubbing his head. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You're on the bus to crazy town." Sasuke is the only guy I know who can say this stuff with a strait face. The blond looked around and spotted me "Hi I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I'm new, well sort of. What's your name? Are you new? Do you know these people? What's your favorite color? How old are you?" This guy wouldn't shut up.

"Do you have A.D.D. or something?" I interrupted

"Actually yes I do. You're rude. Are you Shikamaru? They told me they were picking up a guy named Shikamaru. Do you have a girlfriend? I do she's hot. Her name's Hinata. She stutters. Do you stutter? Hey look a butterfly." He stopped talking and looked out the window. This guy probably forgot to take some medication or something I thought. We had been in the car for about 20 minutes. "How long is this drive going to take?" I asked Itachi. "Another 3 hours " said Sasuke with no emotion as usual.

"I'm going to take a nap. Choji make sure these dorks don't prank me while I'm sleeping." I said I hate it when people do that, especially the one where they put shaving crème in your hand and tickle your nose. Sasuke did that once at camp and I permanently damaged his hearing in his left ear. He wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything but I thought that Naruto clown might.

"No problem. Hey do you have any food?" that was Choji always thinking with his stomach.

"Maybe. Check my bag" I said. The last sound I heard was Choji going through my bag as I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke 2 hours later to the familiar sound of road rage. Remember how I said Itachi was usually quiet. Well when he's stuck in traffic he swears like a sailor. Itachi had his head out the window and was yelling loudly "What the fuck do you think you're doing? You fucking son of a bitch!" he yelled as some one cut him off. The others were watching him with admiration, except Sasuke who was used to this and didn't care.

Great now I wouldn't be able to sleep. I decided to watch clouds. I don't really try to find shapes I just watch them float along. After another hour of road rage we were finally at the school. The Konaha academy didn't seem very inviting.

Even though the Konaha academy was for problem kids it had some problems of its own. Tsunade didn't even own the school anymore she lost it in a poker game but the new owner never got around to firing Tsunade or renaming the school. The academy was around 5 stories tall with the dorms in the back. Since most of the students were ninjas from nearby villages there were fields set up for shuriken practice. There was a track and a football field too but those weren't used as much. "Okay everybody out" called Itachi. We grabbed our stuff and hopped out of the van. "Good luck you're going to need it" said Itachi as he drove away.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked an ever clueless Naruto. "Come on guys let's go. Hey look a vending machine. I think I'll get a couple sodas" said Sasuke sprinting toward his one and only love soda. He usually drank around 87 cans a day.

"We've lost Sasuke." I said a little melodramatically "let's go. I think there's a first day assembly about dorms or something."

We headed to the main building and walked inside. Choji immediately smelled the cafeteria and ran off. "So Naruto do you know any of these people?" I asked.

"Yup. I met some of these guys at summer camp. I'll introduce you!" he said grabbing my arm and dragging me down the hall pointing out random people. "That's Sakura Haruno." He said pointing out a girl with bubble gum pink hair. "She's bipolar and talks to herself." She waved at us than began yelling at no one. "She fights with herself a lot. That's Kiba. He's kind of a jerk but once you get to know him he's okay" Naruto said pointing at a boy with black hair wearing a fluffy coat, he had a small tan dog sitting on his head. "Uh what's with the dog?" I asked. "Oh that's Akamaru. Don't really know why Kiba has him here though. Hey is that a butterfly?" Naruto asked pointing to a big blue butterfly. We watched the bug flutter over to a guy in a weird gray coat. The boy reached out his arm and the butterfly easily landed on it. "Maurice you know you're not allowed out" he said talking to the bug "Well I guess it's okay this one time but don't do it again." He put the bug in his pocket walked over to a nearby wall and walked strait up it.

"Who's that guy?" I asked Naruto. "That my friend was Shino. He is probably the weirdest guy here." Naruto replied.

"So uh does he do that a lot?"

"Yup. Now come on I want you to meet Hinata." He said dragging me off yet again. Something about this place told me I was going to fit in just fine.

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**A/N** Aw wasn't that happy? I hope you liked it, I'm currently typing the next chapter so if I get some reviews it should be posted by Satuday. 


	2. So many blond girls so little time

**A/N**: Yay I finished my second chapter! It's crazy long though I hope people like it. It's actually a bit different than what I had planned. It's basicaly still introducing the school and other important characters so I'm sorry if it's boring, I tried to include a few funny bits to distract from the lame informative parts.

**Disclamer:** I do not own Naruto if I did Hinata would have stopped being shy long ago and just tell Naruto she likes him!

Chapter 2: So Many Blond Girls So Little Time

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Naruto dragged me up 2 flights of stairs into a girl's bathroom. "Uh Naruto 2 things, 1 there's nobody in here but us, and 2 THIS IS THE GIRLS BATHROOM!!!" I shouted that last part, which was actually another bad idea. You know how bathrooms tend to echo? Well some how I forgot that when I shouted so now everyone in a ten-foot radius knew where we were.

"Great now you did it!" Naruto said a bit annoyed.

"Um oops!" I said trying to apologize without really apologizing. (this is a skill that is not easy to master)

"Well you were the one who dragged me in here in the first place to meet some girl who isn't even here!"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto said as if he was just remembering something "Well if they aren't in here maybe they are at her locker."

"Huh? Who are they? Who's her?" I asked very confused.

"Come on" said Naruto, still not explaining anything, as he grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the girl's bathroom. He then pulled me down a flight of stairs, through a few empty classrooms and finally stopped.

We stopped next to a group of girls. I was bent over panting as Naruto started talking to the girls while rubbing the back of his head. I looked up to see my blond idiot of a friend talking to an extremely pretty group of girls. There was one girl that he was looking at, which caused her to blush lightly, I assumed this girl was his girlfriend. She had long black hair with purple high lights; her eyes were a very light shade of lavender. She was wearing a huge coat and dark blue cargo pants.

Naruto finally remembered I was there and said "oh Hinata this is Shikamaru."

When he said my name I stood up. "He's new and shy and doesn't know any one."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"Oh whatever." I gave up and let him talk.

"Anyway this is Shikamaru Nara. Shikamaru this is Hinata Huyga" he said pointing to the black-haired girl "she's my girlfriend!"

Hinata nodded and held out her hand "N-n-n-nice to m-meet you Sh-sh-shikamaru-kun." She stuttered when she spoke. She's kind of cute I thought shaking her hand.

"This is Tenten" Naruto pointed to a girl with brown hair in two small buns on the top of her head. Tenten seemed quite less shy than Hinata as she came over and hugged me.

"Nice to meet you she said in a bubbly voice.

"Tenten" Naruto said in a warning voice as she pulled away.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm not supposed to."

I was confused. Why wouldn't she be allowed to hug people?

"Tenten" Naruto said again.

"I know" she said looking at the floor "here's your wallet back." She handed me back my blue wallet with a picture of a cloud on it.

"I'm sorry I can't help it, I just steal stuff without meaning to."

"It's ok." I said "I must be a pretty crappy ninja not to realize what you were doing."

This seemed to cheer her up a bit, she smiled warmly at me. She was quote pretty when she smiled her big chocolate eyes were sparkling slightly. She was wearing a pink top with the words "just cuz I'm tuff it doesn't mean I can't rok the color pink!" (not misspelling's the shirt actually says that) and camo style pants with several bulging pockets.

"This is Sakura, you saw her earlier but you didn't really get a chance to talk" blondie was at it again as he pointed to the girl with bright pink hair.

She smiled and waved at me, she had a red halter top, a blue denim mini skirt and big silver hoop earrings.

"And this is Ino" Naruto pointed at a girl with light blond hair. She seemed really familiar, she reminded me of some one (two some ones actually but one registered more than the other). Her purple outfit looked so much like something ………

"Nice meeting you. Bye!" I yelled as I ran down the hall to the stairs. I jumped down a flight of steps in a single leap; sometimes it comes in handy to be a ninja. I quickly dashed into the nearest classroom and shut the door behind me.

The room appeared deserted. I walked over to a wall and sat down. That Ino girl she….she….she looked so much like Temari, her hair and those bright blue eyes. I sighed and buried my face in my hands. I don't know why but seeing Ino unleashed so many memories, some from when I was very young for some reason, almost all of them were about Temari. All the good times, the arguments, and all the pain of her death had come rushing up at me and I hadn't been able to handle it.

"Hey are you alright?"

I looked up into the face of yet another blond girl. She had hair a bit more golden colored than Ino and eyes that were closer to green than blue (I actually have no idea what color this um person's eyes are but I'm sticking with marine blue)

"Uh yeah I guess. Sorry I didn't know you were in here" I said standing up and rubbing the back of my head in what I realized was a very Naruto-like-way.

"Well that's good I thought you might be sick or something." I didn't know why but I seemed to feel like I could be more open with this girl, she seemed like she honestly cared about me.

"I'm fine I've just got a lot on my mind" I said as a loud familiar voice yelled my name.

"Shikamaru! Shikamaru! Where'd you go?"

"I'm in here" I called out instinctively "Um thanks uh… sorry I don't know your name" I said turning to the girl.

"My name is Deidara and I'm guessing your Shikamaru?"

"Yeah that's me. Thanks for being concerned about me Deidara-sempai"

"Don't call me that it's way to formal, only Tobi calls me that. You can just call me Dei-chan"

"Thanks Dei-chan" I said testing it out. At that moment a certain blond dobe stuck his head in the door.

"There you are Shika-san, I was looking all over for you. Oh hey Deidara-chan." Naruto said noticing her.

She waved and said "I better get to the assembly or Tobi will freak. See ya Shika-kun I hope you get in the Rock dorm!"

She left the room skipping slightly in her flower print jeans and light blue tank top. "Wow _Shika-kun _you're certainly popular with the ladies."

"Don't call me Shika. I only let girls call me that and I'm pretty sure you're not a girl, but hey I've been wrong before." It took Naruto a minute to realize I was insulting him.

"Hey! I am not a girl" that was as far as I let him get before I interrupted.

"I know you're not a girl. Speaking of girls what did Dei-chan mean by 'the rock dorm'?"

"Oh that, there are five different dorms, I think, and rock is one of them. You keep the same dorm all four years so you can bond with your roomies or something. Deidara's a sophomore so even if we aren't in the same dorm we should see her around a lot." He said answering my next question before I could ask it.

"So why'd you run off earlier?" He sounded much more serious when he said this. I looked at him; he was still staring at the door. He turned to me and asked again "Why'd you freak out so much when I was introducing you to Ino?"

Now it was my turn to look away as I said "I'll tell you later, I think the assembly is starting now." I changed the subject.

Naruto seemed as if he was going to ask again but he sighed and grabbed my arm dragging me off again. The assembly was is the gym, Naruto knew the way or so he said. After searching for a while I found a map like the ones you see in malls with the helpful little you are here sticker. After looking at the map-thing several times I found the correct way to the gym and Naruto started dragging me in the correct direction this time.

We were almost o the door when I spotted Sasuke. I was about to out to him when that Sakura girl walked over to him. She started talking and talking. I could tell Sasuke was trying to think of a way to shut her up. Naruto was about to intervene when Sasuke gently took hold of the girl's chin and pressed his lips against hers. Sakura closed her eyes and put her hands behind Sasuke's head, we watched in awe as they went into full make-out mode right in the middle of the hallway, nobody besides us was there so it wasn't really that big a deal.

Naruto and I just stood there open mouthed, until Naruto swallowed a bug and started freaking out a little bit. I was impressed (not about the bug thing about the Sasuke and Sakura thing), I didn't know Mr. no emotions had it in him. When Sasuke and Sakura finally stopped making out Sakura started to walk towards the gym door all happy and giggly but when she tried to go in she missed the door. Sasuke noticed us and came over.

"Hey Shikamaru. Naruto swallow a bug again?" he asked, Naruto was still coughing and sputtering a bit.

"What the hell was that!?!" Naruto yelled after he spit out a very damp bug.

"What are you…oh the thing with Sakura. Well I had to shut her up and I couldn't really be mean, she's liked me since I was about 2. She's been following me all day, so I figured that would keep her happy and out of my perfect hair for a while. Sakura's nice but after a while she gets to be, I can't believe I'm saying this, troublesome." He said looking at the giggling girl who had finally managed to get inside the gym.

I was in shock at the use of my personal catchphrase, I quickly recovered. "We better get inside I think we're the only ones not there" it was true the halls were deserted. We walked into the gym to find the whole school staring at us.

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The students were sitting by grade (all the freshmen together, all the sophomores together etc.) and the teachers were sitting on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the gym. A tall blond woman with huge…..erm, oh fine I'll just say it, she had gigantic boobs, was standing at a podium on the platform began speaking "Thank you for joining us boys, no need to find seats we're almost done."

Crap had we missed getting dorms. I didn't really care who my roomies would be I just didn't really feel like spending my freshman year in a tent.

Naruto spoke up "Wait what dorm are we in?"

"Oh that, well" the blond lady who I assumed was Tsunade the principal was looking at a list on a clipboard "the only dorm with room left is…..the leaf dorm."

For some reason several kids snickered when she said which dorm we were staying in.

"Get over here. And just for your information I am Tsunade co-principal of this school." I thought so.

We walked over to the platform. There was a large box next to her which she was now digging through. She pulled out 3 head bands (I'd put the Japanese name but I have no idea how you spell it) with a metal plate attached to the front.

"These are your headbands" she said tossing them to us "don't lose 'em, it costs ten bucks to replace them. And these are your dorm keys, if you lose those you're screwed."

Tsunade chucked the keys at us. Sasuke caught his headband and keys easily, I almost dropped the head band to catch my keys, and Naruto dropped both and floundered around a bit trying to pick them up.

"Now go sit down!" Tsunade yelled.

We ran to where the freshmen were sitting, Hinata waved us over to where she was sitting with Tenten and Ino. They had saved seats for us, we sat down quickly.

"Now where was I?" Tsunade was speaking again "oh yes, the first official day of classes will be when ever the teachers feel like it, should be in a bout a week or two. This year we won't be able to have woodshop classes or metal shop classes."

A loud moan could be heard throughout the gym. "Hey it's there own damn fault, they shouldn't have bet all there funding to the dance committee, speaking of which there is a dance scheduled for Halloween so be sure to come. The talent show will be near the end of November so sign up now with Shizune" A woman with black hair waved "and shortly after the end of semester will be our inter dorm contest. I have to explain the way dorms work again don't I? Ugh ok there are five dorms, there used to be six but a certain Itachi Uchiha burned down the Sound dorm in his senior year."

I chuckled "Nice." I whispered to Sasuke who gave me a thumbs up (Sasuke's lack of emotion makes it hard for him to show facial expressions so this is a Sasuke version of a smirk).

"The five remaining dorms are the Rain, Mist, Rock, Sand, and Leaf. Each dorm has a color (this is the color of the headband strap for each dorm not the color of the kage (which I'm leaving out of the story) or the color that makes the most sense) Rain is green, Mist is white, Rock is red, Sand is brown, and Leaf is blue, don't look at me I didn't come up with any of this crap."

"Yes you did."

"Shut up Shizune! Anyway some dorms are much better than the others, the Rain dorm is the one that looks like a five star hotel. Then there are the Rock and Mist dorms which are pretty much okay, but the color scheme is kind of tacky and there are these gaping holes in the floor that you need to watch out for. Then the Leaf and Sand dorms, which will be renovated after this year, they are in serious need of repairs; they basically look like crap in apartment form." Tsunade sure like to here herself talk.

"Now everybody get out!" She yelled into the mike.

I couldn't tell if she was been serious or not.

"I mean it get the hell outta here" she said reaching for a kunai.

At that everyone fled the gym in a raging mob. I looked back for a minute to see Tsunade chuckling to herself.

"Works every time."

So that's our principal, this is going to be an interesting year I thought as the frenzied mob of students carried me out to the dorms.

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A/N YAY! I'm so glad I finally put this up it took forever to type so you people better read and review or I will be sad and not write again. Ok I will write again but it'd be nice to get some reviews, the button is there for a reason. I'm thinking about putting up a new story that was actually by sister's idea but she's to lazy to get her own acount so she'll post her stories through mine, it's called Living with Akatsuki although the title may change later, it's about Sasuke and his brother Itachi getting kicked out of their apartment and going to stay with Itachi's crazy friends the Akatsuki!(Rated T for Hidan and Q for randomness) I'm going to try to have that one up by Christmas but I won't make any promises. Anyways about my story I wrote this at the begining of the school year and I know i't a bit late to post a High school fic but it took me a while to figure out how you actually post a story so please bear with me. (hehe bear)

Review please and to the people or should I say person who reviewed the last chapter I thank you!

Uses Jedi mind powers on people who wish to flame

_This is not the story you wish to flame. _

_Instead you will write a nice review involving bunnies and kittens!_

Remember the button is their for a reason!


	3. Troublesome part 1

**A/N:** yayz I have more reviewers now! Okay here's the next chapter, yea it is a part 1 and part 2 should be posted shortly after christmas. I need a day off and that seems like a good day to me.

**Disclamer:** I will own Naruto when the sun turns into a muffin, both would be random and freak people out.

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**Chapter 3: Troublesome Part 1**

As the mob surged outside I quickly escaped being trampled and fled to a near by wall of the school, I sat down panting. I looked up at a relatively cloudless sky. I stared a one single lonely cloud making its way across the vast blu-

My thoughts were interrupted as a small pebble collided with my head. I caught it in my right hand after it bounced off my forehead

"Ow" I said rather lamely as I stared at the pebble in my hand.

"Not much of a talker huh?" said a girls voice from about ten feet away.

I looked up and saw Ino walking towards me. This time I didn't freak out and run away. Ino seemed to have noticed this as well. "You aren't running away this time." She said sitting down next to me.

"Yeah about that, I'm sorry I just, well I uh" how do you explain to some one that they look a lot like your dead girlfriend without totally creeping them out?

"It's ok, if you don't want to tell me you don't have to" she said taking the pebble from my hand.

"Hey"

"Hey what? I threw the pebble so technically it's my pebble."

"Well _your_ pebble collided with _my _forehead so technically it's my pebble." I said taking back the pebble and putting it in my pocket.

"Aw why do you have to get technical?"

"You started it." It was funny we were having a child like argument over a pebble.

"Ugh fine, I really liked that pebble" Ino grumbled, crossed her arms, and pouted her lip just like five year old. She looked like a five year old too so I laughed a little bit.

"What awe you waughing at?" she said in a high pitch voice which made me laugh harder. She started to crack up too and soon she was laughing like a hyena for no apparent reason.

"Um it wasn't that funny" I said as Ino rolled on the ground.

"I'm ha-ha sorry, hehehe I can't stop!" she sad through peals of laughter. After a minute she calmed down and said "sorry I have issues, I kind of have this disorder where I can't stop laughing or crying (I'm just making this up but it seems to be the kind of disorder Ino would have), so don't give me a reason to cry or I'll flood the school."

"Interesting do you have any other disorders or special abilities I should now about?" I asked trying to be clever.

"None that come to mind, what about you?"

"Well I do have the ability to bore any girl I meet out of her mind, but you seem to be resisting my mind dulling powers."

At this she giggled a bit but didn't go into hysterics this time. "So are you a funny, class clown type guy or the serious student type?" She asked.

"I don't consider my self in either of those groups I'm a good for nothing lazy-ass who surprises people when he, I mean I actually get good grades, the being funny part is a mystery to me though I'm never really trying to be funny I'm just being me." I was being honest I was never one to crack a lot of jokes but when I do say something funny people listen.

I was a bout to ask Ino something when a blond knuckle head said loudly "well well well it seems our Shika-kun is a ladies man."

Ino and I looked up to see said blond dork along with Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata walking towards us. "I told you to knock it off with the 'Shika' thing!" I yelled as I stood up. Sakura rushed over to help Ino up.

"What dorm are you girls in?" I asked Hinata.

"W-w-we're l-leaf too." She said pointing to her headband which she was wearing around her neck. I just now noticed that the metal plate had a symbol engraved on it. I looked at mine, which I had tied around my arm; it had the same leaf symbol on it. To me the symbol looked more like a snail that fell over and couldn't get up.

"Well let's go find our dorm" said Sasuke heading off.

We followed him over to the dorms. The first we passed was a huge dorm that looked more like a hotel. "Do you think that's our dorm?" asked Naruto, always the first to say something stupid.

"No I don't think so. Tsunade said the leaf dorm looked like crap in building form so I doubt that's it. Let's go sit over on those benches" I said pointing to a group of benches under some trees. We went over and sat down. I pulled out a map of the school I picked up earlier.

"Okay we're here by the Rain dorm, and our dorm is way over here" I pointed to two spots on the map "it should take us about….20 minutes to get there from here."

"I know a short cut!" Naruto interrupted "I heard these upper classmen talking about it."

"I guess we could try that" I said looking at him.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Naruto said walking off happily.

3 hours later we finally found our dorm. I stood there staring up at it while everyone else yelled at Naruto. "You idiot! How was that a shortcut?" Ino yelled "We went through a forest, half the school, and the indoor pool of the Rain dorm and it took 3 hours!"

"W-w-well a-t-t-t l-least he g-g-got us here" Hinata stuttered trying to defend Naruto. At this they all stared at the dorm. It was around four stories tall with a flat roof. It was a mud brown color with some boards out of place. There were a couple of windows, all of them were broken. There was also a small porch made out of rotting wood with a hobo sleeping on it. In front of it, about two feet from where I was standing there was a small sign with the word "leaf" on it in blue letters. "I guess this is our dorm." I said.

"Well this stinks" said an already irritated Ino.

"Hey Naruto, I dare you to go jab that hobo with a stick" said Sasuke handing Naruto a stick.

"Okay" said Naruto, always the first to do something stupid. He grabbed the stick and ran over to the hobo, appeared to be asleep. Naruto jabbed the guy a few times in the chest before he rolled over mumbling about something. Naruto poked him again a bit harder. The hobo moaned and sat up.

"What day is it?" he asked in a raspy male voice.

"Uh it's almost noon on Wednesday the 5th of September (this was the day I actually wrote this), school just started" said Naruto.

The hobo suddenly stood up. I could see him better now; he had long black hair, pale skin, and snake-like facial features. He was wearing an old brown trench coat that smelled like it had been soaked in sake. "Wow that was some party" he said to no one in particular "Oh hello smallish people" he said noticing us "I'm Orochimaru, hey kids do you want to by a watch?"

He opened his coat (he's wearing clothes underneath so don't freak) to reveal a few hundred watches.

"These are all fakes" Sasuke as he grabbed one and easily crushed it in his hand.

"Hey that's quality merchandise! Wait a minute, is that you Itachi? Man you've shrunk!"

"I'm not Itachi. I'm his brother Sasuke" he said as he grabbed another watch and threw it against a tree.

"Oh sorry I'm a little hung-over. Do you kids know what a hangover is?" the hobo was talking to us as if we were five.

I didn't know about the others but I knew what a hangover was all to well. It was hard to remember moments of my childhood when my dad wasn't hung over, or in the process of getting one. This drunkard was reminding me a bit too much of home, how sad is that? "Well we had better get up to our rooms." I said attempting to drag everyone away from the creepy Michael Jackson look-a-like.

Sasuke smashed another watch then helped me get everyone inside. The hobo didn't really seem to care.

We entered the building to find an old wreck room, with a TV and an old foosball table.

"I think our rooms are on the third floor" I said heading to the stairs. I quickly noticed two things about the stairs. One, most of the steps had rotted through completely; two there was no floor underneath the stairs, just a big gaping hole.

"Holly crap" I tried out the first step, hearing it creak I quickly pulled back my foot.

"What's the matter" Naruto had joined me at the foot of the stairs "how the hell are we supposed to get to our rooms?"

"If we go up one at a time it might not collapse" Sasuke was suddenly next to me "just to be safe I better go first" he said starting up the stairs.

He was about halfway when suddenly the stair under him cracked in half. Sakura screamed and for just a split second I saw what looked like fear in Sasuke's eyes, but it was soon gone as he jumped to the top of the stair case onto the next landing as the board he had been on plummeted to the basement below and it was a while before we heard it hit the ground.

"See it's no big deal" said Sasuke as cool as ever. Sakura quickly rushed past me and didn't stop until she was next to Sasuke hugging him tightly. Hinata took Naruto's hand and began coaching the nervous blond up the stairs. Ino and I were the only ones left at the bottom of the stairs. I gulped and started up, Ino followed. We were just past the halfway point when the step Ino was on gave way and took half the stairs with it. Time seemed to slow; Ino and I were falling and couldn't reach the next landing. Ino screamed, I grabbed her and pulled her close. We were almost to the basement floor I couldn't stop us from falling but I could at least break Ino's fall. I hit the ground hard, Ino was on top of me but she moved off and sat up.

"Ino are you okay?"

"Yeah a little sore but I think I'm fine. What about y-" she gasped "Shikamaru you're bleeding!"

"Huh well would you look at that" I said noticing a deep cut on my arm. For some reason the pain hadn't registered, my back felt strange though. I felt my back with my hand, it was wet with blood. I looked behind me to see what I had landed on. There were a large number of old shuriken embedded in the ground behind me; several were lightly coated in blood, my blood. The edges of my vision were staring to get fuzzy. I groaned as I lay back down on a weaponless patch of ground.

"Shikamaru!" I heard Ino crying my name as I closed my eyes and everything went black.

* * *

**A/N: Oooh a cliffy! Well it's sort of a cliffy, the first part was manly ShikaIno fluffness but I needed to have a moment between them and so ok it wasn't that fluffy but I thought it was cute!**

**I want to let people know that i know Deidara is a guy but I also know Haku is supposed to be a guy but that doesn't stop me from making her a girl and I wan't to have Deidara in here and it just works better is she's a girl there's only like 5 girls in Naruto that are actually important so I had to.**

**REVIEW PLEASE the button is there for a reason! And no that reason is not to flame! Although if you do flame tonight at midnight a holly jolly prowler will sneak into your house and eat all your cookies! So be afraid be very afraid!**


	4. Troublesome part 2

**A/N: OMG this took so long to write. My stupid Computer kept dying so I had to re-write it several times and I'm not totally satisfied with the final product. It seemed ok when I was writing it but now I'm not so sure and I'm way too lazy to go back and re-write it again so here it is I'm sorry if it sucks.**

**Disclamer: I don't own Naruto, if I did Lee would use a dang contraction once in a while!**

* * *

I was surrounded by darkness. Someone was calling my name. Ino? No somebody else, Temari! She was standing there smiling at me I tried to run to her but my legs weren't working. Suddenly my surroundings changed. I was in a hospital room. Temari was in a bed in front of me, she had cut and bruises all over her face. She was hooked up to several machines. In the corner of the room a redheaded boy was crying softly, tears were running down my own face as well. Suddenly the machines were flat lining.

"No. No. NO TEMARI!!" I sat up panting as if I had just run a marathon.

"Hey you're alive!" said a familiar blond idiot.

I looked around "where am I?" I was in a small room with three beds crammed inside along with three dressers and a desk. I was lying in one of the beds Naruto and Sasuke had thrown their stuff onto the other two beds. "What time is it? And where's my shirt?!" I asked realizing I wasn't wearing one.

"Shikamaru take it easy. You've been asleep for three years" said Naruto.

"WHAT!!!" I yelled almost falling out of bed.

"Shikamaru calm down. Naruto's lying. You've only been out for a couple hours. Try not to move around so much you'll reopen your wounds." Sasuke said nodding at my heavily bandaged chest.

"What happened? The last thing I remember was falling into the basement and then nothing." I said as I reached for my bag "How'd you guys get us out of the basement?"

"Well when the stairs collapsed Naruto freaked out and almost jumped after you. We thought you two were dead, but then we heard Ino screaming about how you were bleeding or dying or something. We couldn't find a way down to you."

"Wait then who got us out?" I interrupted.

"Let me finish" Sasuke continued in his monotone voice "All the other people in the dorm came out when they heard the stairs collapse. One of the guys, I think his name was Shino, sent a swarm of bugs down into the basement. We weren't sure what he was doing but then the swarm came back out carrying you and Ino. We took you down to the infirmary and Tsunade patched you up and now you're here."

"Oh yeah" Naruto said as if remembering something "Ino really wants to talk to you. She's in the room across the hall. You should go say hi."

I decided this was a good idea. I pulled on a shirt, stood up, and left the bedroom. I walked into a room that was a small living room with a kitchen area in one corner. I walked over to the front door and pulled it open to see Ino standing there about to knock on the door.

"Oh hi Shikamaru. Are you feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah I'm okay" I pulled the door close behind me as I stepped into the hallway.

"Thanks for trying to save me" she said looking at her feet.

"No problem, but you don't have to thank me it was no big d-" was all I managed to get out before she kissed me lightly on the cheek.

She pulled away and looked at me; I realized I was blushing brightly when I asked "What was that for?"

"Oh I'm sorry" she said although she sounded unfazed "I didn't realize you had a girlfriend."

It surprised me that this was the first thing that popped into her head at my reaction "No that's not it…you just surprised me" I could feel my face turning redder.

"Oh, so you don't have a girlfriend?" she seemed a bit happier now.

"Well kinda, I had one but she uh….."

"She dumped you?"

"No"

"You dumped her?"

"No"

"She cheated?"

"No"

"She turned lesbian?"

"No"

"You turned gay!?!"

"No! She…she died." now I was the one looking at my shoes.

"Oh I'm sorry really I had no idea." She honestly sounded honest.

When I looked up she was sighing "I guess you aren't quite ready to move on yet?" I shook my head.

"Well in that case I think what you need now are friends so I'll just be your……friend-girl!" she smiled and walked back to her room. She paused for a moment before opening the door

"Shikamaru I really do appreciate that you tried to save me. You're a nice guy, you shouldn't be afraid to show it."

With that she went into her room leaving me alone in the hall blushing brightly. I remembered she wasn't the first girl to tell me something like that, although Temari had put it a bit differently.

_(Flashback)_

"_You're such a moron! But I guess you're a sweet moron so quit acting like you're such a damn loner!"_

_(End of flashback)_

Temari was never really one for mushy stuff. "Troublesome" I sighed then turned back to my room and opened the door, as I did so I heard two loud grunts as Naruto and Sasuke were pushed to the floor. It was obvious they had been listening in on my "private" moment with Ino.

"How much did you guys hear?"

Naruto didn't even deny listening "Everything! Sorry about your dead girl but it seems like you and Ino were getting pretty friendly!"

"We were not!"

"Then why'd she kiss you?"

"She didn't!"

"Oh so you always wear pink lipstick on your face?"

Damnit why do girls have to wear so much makeup I thought as I furiously rubbed my face.

"Sasuke told me about your old girlfriend, she was from Suna right?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah she was but she's dead and I don't really feel like talking about her right now." I was hoping Naruto wouldn't badger me any more about my so called love life.

"Oh okay but could you at least tell me her name?" Naruto would not be dissuaded so easily.

"Okay fine I'll tell you um…three things about her then no more questions got it?" I figured that might shut Naruto up for a while.

He nodded and said "ok so what was her name?"

"Temari"

"How long did you go out?"

"About a year and a half, last question so you'd better make it count"

Naruto thought for a moment before Sasuke asked "does she have any other family members we can ask more questions?"

"Well she had two brothers, Kankuro and Gaara, Kankuro died in the same car crash as Temari but Gaara's fine and I think he goes to this school actually" I saw an eager look on Naruto's face but I stopped him before he could say anything "Sasuke's question counted so no more questions."

"Aw teme you took my last question and I had a good one too!" he whined.

"Too bad, so sad" said Sasuke.

"I'm tired I think I'll go back to sleep" I headed for the bedroom when someone pounded on our front door furiously while yelling "SHIKAMARU ANSWER THE DOOR RIGHT NOW!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE SO COME OUT OR THE DOOR'S COMING DOWN!!!!"

I figured I should probably open the door. I went to the door saying "ok ok I'm coming sheesh". I opened the door just as someone was about to charge.

I was knocked to the floor by a blond blur who was crying "Shika-kun!! I heard what happened!! Are you ok?"

"I'd be fine if you would get off me Deidara." The older girl stood up and let go of me.

"Sorry I just got over excited when I heard what happened." She dusted herself off and then began dusting me off as well.

"Cut it out Deidara! How'd you hear anyway?"

"Ino told me she's like my little sister."

"I thought you guys were related" Naruto said proudly.

"No we're not; people just assume we are because we look a lot alike. I've known Ino for a while so she's _like_ my little sister." Deidara said playing with Sasuke's hair "right after Ino called Sasuke emailed me like 12 times telling me to come over for some reason, and no Naruto I am not related to Sasuke I dated his brother once and Sasuke became my little buddy"

"But why do you care about _Shika-kun_ then?" I could tell Naruto felt left out although I wasn't sure myself why Deidara seemed to like me.

"Well that's because Shikamaru is my new project" she said playing with my hair now. I tried to push her away but she continued to mess up my hair.

"What?" Naruto and I said at once.

"I always like to help new people out so ever since middle school I always pick out one kid who seems like they need a bit of help" she said giving up on my head and going to our refrigerator and grabbing one of Sasuke's sodas.

"But Shikamaru's like a genius why would he need help?" asked Sasuke who looked a little annoyed that Deidara had taken on of his precious sodas.

"I don't help with grades I help with their social life but mostly I just think they need some support so I supply a strong friendship for them to rely on if they need anything, and Shikamaru was actually not my idea" she said ignoring Sasuke's look of annoyance.

"What? Then whose idea was it?" I asked getting a soda of my own.

"A teacher told me that you had had a rough summer and might need some cheering up" she said nonchalantly.

"How would a teacher know about………wait a minute it wasn't the shogi master was it?" I asked "I remember he said something about how he was getting a teaching job at some boarding school so was it him?"

"Yup, he also said he wants to see you the day before school starts for something and he's not the master anymore, you should know that you were the one who defeated him." Deidara said.

During our conversation Naruto was looking more and more confused. "Who's "the Shogi Master" and how'd Shikamaru beat him?"

Deidara ignored his questions "well I better get going, Tobi will flip if I'm late for our date again, see ya later Shika-kun you too Naruto and Sasuke, oh Sasuke tell your brother I said hello."

She waved and left. Naruto was bursting with questions but I didn't give him a chance "I'm going to bed and I don't wanna be disturbed okay, I need to heel……and stuff."

I walked into the small cramped bedroom and shut the door behind me. I sat on my new bed and realized two things, one i couldn't sleep and two those idiotic roomates of mine had gone thrugh my stuff. I'll deal with it later I thought as I layed back trying to clear my racing mind.

Am I really not over Temari I wondered. I'd heard that if a guy wasn't over someone she would keep going through his mind and every thought of her would cause him pain and confusion. For some reason thinking about Temari seemed to be the one thing I could think about and not be confused. No that wasn't quite true I just felt more confused about everything else.

Thoughts ran through my exausted mind.Did Ino like me as more than a friend? Did I still love Temari? Was it really the exshogi master who had told Deidara about me? What did he want to talk about just before school started? And why do people keep going through my stuff? So many Quetions with no answers my so called "brilliant" mind could find.

If I'm such a genius why can't I understand my own thoughts? I wondered as I drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

* * *

**Well that was kinda long. I'm sorry if it stunk I'm trying to fight off a bad case of writers block and I think I'm losing, but I have much better chapters planned out for the future so bear with me. Ok just incase I didn't put this on here somewhere before I know Deidara is supposed to be a guy but have you seen how he looks? And she just fits better in my story as a girl, I was originally planning to makehi a drag queen but I decide I didn't really want to take that direction with this story o he is staying a she and no she will not get any closer with Shikamaru than a friend, she's going to be a key factor in getting Shikamaru with a certain blond, no it's not Naruto. I hope people like it I wasn't that happy with it but I guess it's ok.**

**REVIEW PLEASE!!!! **

**Flamers beware if you flame me I will hunt you down and put a rat in your casserole!JK or am I?**

**And for those of you who read but don't review,I appreciate that you are reading but everytime you read without reviewing somewhere Orochimaru laughs evilly. **


	5. Girls and Guitars

**A/N: I am so sorry I haven't been updating lately! I just started my finals so I've been really busy. I feel bad so to make up for it when my finals are done I'll start a new story (or stories), I have this pole pn my profile where you can vote for the story you want, all the summaries are on my page. My finals are over on Friday so that's when the pole closes and I'll start which ever story gets the most votes, but I have to warn you some of the stories are still in the idea stage so they could take a bit longer. Any way on with the story**

**Disclamer: I don't own Naruto, if I did all the characters would have blue hair!**

* * *

About two weeks after the stairs incident class schedules finally came which meant classes would be starting up soon. The schedules arrived on a Saturday. Naruto, Sasuke, and I had just got back from a foosball tournament in the wreck room against Kiba, Shino, and Chouji, Naruto was proudly carrying the trophy Sasuke had won. We were about to out for food when suddenly Ino screamed. We ran to where the staircase had been (for info. On what happed to the stairs see ch.3), we had previously constructed a rope ladder to go up to our rooms and a metal pole to slide down creating a slight fun-house effect, we ran to the rope ladder and hurried up. I raced to the third floor followed by Naruto and Sasuke. We ran to Ino's room and I knocked on the door "Ino what's the matter?" 

Ino quickly came to the door holding a paper in her hand "Oh hey guys what's up?"

"What is it? What's with the paper?" asked Naruto.

"You have them on you doors too they're class schedules" she said.

"And you screamed why?" Sasuke asked while Naruto just stood there holding the trophy. I went over to our door and found three sheets of paper stuck to it, I pulled them off, one had my name on it and the others had Sasuke and Naruto's names on them. While I was doing this Ino was saying "I dunno, just felt like it."

"Hey guys this means class start Monday right?" I said briefly looking up from my schedule. I walked over to her while handing Sasuke and Naruto their schedules.

"I think so" Naruto said looking at his schedule "what classes do we have together?"

"Hm…let's compare schedules" Sasuke grabbed Naruto's and my schedules and stuck them to the door side by side.

(Ok here I'm just going to put their schedules so readers can refer to this later when they are hopelessly confused)

UZUMAKI NARUTO:

Homeroom: Kakashi-sensei

Algebra: Asuma-sensei

Physical Science: Kurenai-sensei

Gym: Gai-sensei

Lunch

Music: Anko-sensei

English: Kakashi-sensei

History: Iruka-sensei

UCHIHA SASUKE

Homeroom: Kakashi-sensei

Algebra: Asuma-sensei

English Honors: Kakashi-sensei

Gym: Gai-sensei

Lunch

Honors Physical Science: Kurenai-sensei

Health: Hayate-sensei

Honors World Studies: Ibiki-sensei

NARA SHIKAMARU

Homeroom: Kakashi-sensei

Drama: Shizune-sensei

English Honors: Kakashi-sensei

Gym: Gai-sensei

Lunch

Honors Physical Science: Kurenai-sensei

AP Human Geography: Iruka-sensei

Geometry: Asuma-sensei

"Well we have some of the same classes" Naruto said after looking at the schedules a few times "hey you guys are in honors…and Shikamaru's in geometry, that's a sophomore class! Why are you guys so smart?"

"Because we actually study every once in a while" Sasuke "but this should make you feel better, Shikamaru has a girly elective."

"Hey drama is not girly!" Ino said "only brave guys are in drama because they aren't afraid of the world of theater! I've been in drama classes since I could walk and all the guys I've met have been-"

"Gay?" Naruto guessed. Ino smacked him.

"No! They are kind and outgoing so you should man up and audition for the talent show" she had completely changed the subject and was no grilling Naruto about the Talent show. I would have loved to stay and watch but my cell phone chose that moment to ring. I walked into my room shutting the door behind and answered my phone.

"Hello"

"Hey Shika-kun it's Deidara"

"Oh hey"

"He changed his mind he wants to meet with you now"

"Who…oh yeah him. Where?"

"In his classroom."

"Which room is his?"

"Number 236"

"Ok I'll go there now see ya later."

"Bye."

I hung up and walked out of my dorm room, around the still yelling Ino and Naruto and made my way out of the dorm.

About 20 minutes later I found the right room. I nervously knocked on the door.

"Come in" a man's voice called from inside the classroom. I opened the door and walked in.

"Well well well, if it isn't the little genius Shikamaru Nara. You've grown."

"Three years can do that to a person Asuma or should I call you Sensei now?" I said looking at my dad's old army buddy, my close friend, and godfather, Asuma Sarutobi. He sat on his desk a pack of cigarettes in his chest pocket, a habit he had never quite been able kick, I may have changed but he looked the same as ever, his black hair and beard making him look a little like a pirate.

"Asuma is fine" he said looking me up and down "so you're in my class right?"

"Yup."

He chuckled "is that all you can say?"

"I can say more but it's too troublesome" I said simply.

He smirked "maybe you haven't changed as much as I thought."

"Why'd you tell Deidara about me?"

"Changing the subject now are we? Well I heard about Temari and I thought you might need some cheering up" he said looking away from me.

I stiffened at the mention of Temari but quickly recovered "so why'd you want to see me? Do you want another rematch? You know you're never going to beat me."

Asuma smirked "no that's not it and I may beat you one day."

"Keep dreaming old man."

"I will don't worry about that. The reason I called you in here today was to give you your present."

My eyes widened a bit "you remembered" I said quietly.

"Yeah I did…and so did your parents" he nodded to the corner of the room. There were some big boxes there in colorful wrapping paper decorated with clouds. I looked at Asuma he nodded; I walked over to the corner. Wasting no time I quickly had all of them unwrapped, one was an electric keyboard, another was a shogi set with special glass pieces, there were two guitars one a dark brown acoustic and the other a blue electric guitar with a white cloud on the back complete with amplifiers and picks.

I picked up the electric guitar "wow" I breathed softly as I strummed it gently. I turned to see Asuma looking at me proudly "thought you'd like it."

I smiled and walked over to him "thanks."

"Talking still too troublesome for you?"

"Yup" I picked up both guitars "could you help me get the other stuff to my room?"

"Sure."

"Now who's not talking?" I said teasing him.

I left the room chuckling to myself.

A while later I put the stuff in m dorm room. My roommates weren't there so I grabbed my acoustic and headed to the roof. I had gone up there once before when Naruto dragged me up there swearing he had seen a flying saucer, we found out later that it was a Frisbee. The sun was low in the sky as I emerged from the stairs, I walked to one side and sat down letting my feet dangle over the edge, I picked up the guitar and started playing a song I had written for Temari the day before she died.

"_When the sun begins to shine,_

_Keep your face turned towards the light (the ending note on each line is held longer)_

_And the shadows when they fall _

_Larger than all_

The shadows grew longer as the sun started to set

_As you walk along this road_

_To a place that's yet unknown_

_You can take my heart along_

_To make you strong_

Looking down on the school grounds I saw Naruto holding hands with Hinata as they walked back towards our dorm

_Take my hand and you will be_

_Always safe here with me_

_I will be your friend forever_

_And ever, and ever_

_Ever without end_

Naruto stopped for a minute and looked up at the setting sun and pulled Hinata closer to him

_Should the days lead us apart_

_Remember in your heart_

_How I see your face so bright _

_Turned towards the light_

Naruto lead Hinata into the dorm, I sighed remembering how that used to feel

_Take my hand and you will be _

_Always safe here with me _

_And I will be your friend forever_

_And ever, and ever_

_Ever without end"_

I strummed for a bit more then stopped and looked at the sun as I felt a tear roll down my face, I quickly wiped it away as I heard some one clapping behind me. I looked around, Chouji was standing there and for one of the first times ever he had no food with him, feeling more tears coming I turned away and looked back at the sun wishing it could dry my tears. Chouji sat next to me.

"That song was for Temari right?" he asked quietly.

I looked down trying to hide my face "yeah."

"Shikamaru it's ok to cry man, especially after what you've been through" he said looking at the sun.

"Doesn't make it any easier though" I admitted looking up at the warm golden orb as it slowly set.

"No but time heals all wounds so I think you'll be ok…someday" He stood up "come on let's go celebrate."

"Why?" I asked looking up at him

"Don't tell be you forgot your own birthday again!"

"Hey that was a one time thing" I said making a face at him.

"Yeah sure" he said sarcastically. I stuck my tongue out at him "yeah that's mature, Shikamaru you're so…grr I can't even come up with a good comeback" Chouji grumbled.

"Well I always have been the smart one" I said standing up.

"Says the guy who forgot his own birthday."

"I didn't forget…I just got distracted."

"I know dude I'm just messing with you now let's go before Kiba and Naruto find your cake."

I chuckled. We headed downstairs, Chouji had apparently left something down there, he slid down the pole first then the lights went out.

"Chouji" I called his name a few times then slid down into the darkness myself.

"Chouji I know you're down here" I called into the dark abyss of the wreck room. Just as my eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness someone turned the lights on and lots of voices yelled "SURPRISE!!!"

Chouji and Naruto were standing there holding a giant cake with the words 'HAPPY 14th SHIKAMARU' in giant letters.

"Thanks guys but you didn't have to do this" I said protesting a little.

"Of course we didn't have to, we wanted to" Naruto said "I mean how often do you just get handed free cake?"

Sasuke smacked him "we're doing this because we're your friends and we care about you."

I looked around at everybody, they were all smiling at me, and to be honest it freaked me out a little bit. I guess they do care about me I thought in their own crazy hyper active way.

"Come on Shika-kun! Blow out the Candles before Naruto and Chouji's drool puts them out first!" Ino said. They were starting to drool, so gross, I figured I shouldn't torture them any more.

"Okay but can we skip the birthday song?" I asked half joking.

"NO WAY!!" Naruto yelled enthusiastically "EVERYBDY SING!!"

**(A/N regular italics is everybody bole italics are Naruto and Chouji)**

"_Happy birthday to you _

_Happy birthday to you_

_Happy birthday Shikamaru __**(You look like a monkey)**_

_Happy birthday to you!! __**(And you smell like one too!)**__"_

I blew out the candles as Sakura hit Naruto and Ino walloped Chouji.

"What did you wish for?" asked Sasuke who looked bored out of his mind.

I don't need anything with friends like you is what I thought but that was way too cheesy so I said "a pony."

Sasuke smirked a bit then handed me a present wrapped in black paper with small red clouds on it "it's not a pony but it may come in handy" he said.

I opened it. It was a mega phone, I chuckled "I think I'll use it right now."

Everyone was yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, I took a breath and yelled into my new present "SHUT UP!!!!!!" everyone did so "OKAY NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FREE STUFF THAT I HAVEN"T OPENED YET, I'LL GET TO IT SOON BUT RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO STAND IN THE CORNER WHILE YOU PEOPLE FIGHT OVER CAKE."

As everyone jumped on the cake I sat back and thought of my past birthdays some were quite memorable, such as the time my dad got alcohol poisoning and almost died or the time both parents forgot my big day, but this one by far was my favorite and even without that pony.

* * *

**A/N: Wow that was freakishly long, no wonder it took so long to type. I'm sorry but the next chapter may take a while to post but I know for sure it will be the first day of classes. "A pony" ha how many of you saw that coming!**

**Inner me: I did**

**Me: well shut up!**

**Inner me: did you have sugar again**

**Me:...NO!!!...maybe**

**Inner Me: Review or Didi will eat sugar and go on a rampage...again**

**Me: Hey that was a one time thing! And you did it too! And stop telling people my name!**

**Inner me: that's not your name it's just a nick name, her real name is mmp! -mouth gets covered by Didi-**

**Me: Don't tell people my name or I shall give you the rabies treatment!! You reading this review or Sasuke shall dance swan lake!! Yes I am that evil!**

**Sasuke: Why are you dragging me into this you're the one fighting with yourself...again.**

**Me: oh Sakura your boyfriend is here all alone!**

**Sakura bursts through a wall **

**Sakura: SASUKE!!!**

**Sasuke: I hate you Didi**

**Sasuke gets dragged off by Sakura**

**Me: I know aren't I the worst?**

**Inner me: Yes, yes you are now review or I'll bite your face!**

**Me: Hey I'm the crazy one!**

**Inner me: that gets boring after a while and this is getting too long and random so I will end with a flamer poem**

**_Violets are blue and roses are red_**

**_Reviews make my happy, flames make you dead _-eyes flash evily-**


	6. School begins

**A/N: Hey people my finals are over!!! Which means I'll be able to update more often! And I want to start a new story but I don't know which one, I have a pole on my profile where you can vote for the one you want. I just need a few more votes so if you haven't already voted go to my profile and vote already!!! Oh there are a few new characters in my story as a result of whoever voted fastest on my last chapter, they are Maomi, Tsuki, and Calyx. To the new characters, you know who you are, I hope you like your part in this chapter. ****Okay now that I've had my little rant on with the story!**

**Disclamer: I don't own Naruto, if I did Orochimaru would have decided to give up being evil and open a clown college.**

**PS: Maomi don't be too mad at me okay.**

* * *

"Shikamaru wake up! Come on; get your lazy butt in gear!"

"Okay fine" I said as I got out of bed. It was Monday, the first day of classes and I was being woken up by an overly excited Naruto. I got up and got dressed then went into our filthy living room; there were clothes everywhere, old cereal bowls covered in flies, and the remains of Shino's ant farm which Naruto and Kiba accidentally smashed the week before, we still hadn't rounded up all the ants.

"It's official, this place is disgusting" I said carefully avoiding stepping on anything as I made my way across the room.

"It isn't so bad" Naruto said making himself a bowl of lucky charms and removing all the actual cereal bits "you can still see the floor….in some places."

"Can we deal with this later?" Sasuke said grabbing our backpacks and putting in the school supplies we had bought "Class starts soon and I don't really want to be late on the first day."

While Naruto quickly at his marshmallows I grabbed a granola bar from the refrigerator "Sasuke's right we should get moving, so Naruto hurry it up!"

"Okay, okay, gosh your so pushy Shikamaru" Naruto finished and grabbed his stuff "let's go!"

We headed out the door. When we got to the bottom floor we met up with Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and Tenten.

"Hey do you guys have the same homeroom teacher as us?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah they do" answered Tenten "all leaf dorm freshmen have Kakashi-sensei."

"And you know this how?" Naruto asked.

"I had him last year" Naruto looked dumbfounded "I'm a sophomore, remember?"

"Oh yeah."

"Well I'll show you where his room is, follow me" she then lead us to the main school building.

Kakashi's room was on the third story. We got there 5 minutes before the late bell.

"See you guys later, I have Gai for homeroom this year and he flips if you're not at least 3 minutes early" Tenten headed off.

"Well let's not stand here all day" Sakura said pushing all of us into the classroom.

Most of the people we knew were already there.

"Hey we saved you guys some seats" Kiba and Chouji ushered us over; they had saved several seats for us. I sat down between Chouji and Ino.

"Where's the teacher?" I asked looking around; he seemed to be the only one who wasn't there.

"I dunno" said Chouji who had brought along a fresh supply of chips.

**R-R-R-I-I-I-N-N-G-G-G-!!!!!!**

The bell rang but still no sign of a teacher. We sat there for 10 minutes waiting. Naruto was getting pretty fed up "Where the hell is he?"

Sasuke had to hold him down so he wouldn't go looking for the teacher. After another 5 minutes of waiting a man with white hair that stuck almost straight up walked into the room. He had a leaf headband on covering one of his eyes and a mask that covered his mouth and nose. His outfit was a light brown vest over a long sleeved blue shirt and dark blue jeans.

"Are you Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked loudly.

"Who wants to know?" he said.

"I do. That's why I asked, duh!"

"Well in that case, yes I am your teacher Kakashi Hatake" he said bowing.

"Why are you so late?" Naruto was still annoyed at having to wait so long.

"I was caught up in the dark mysteries of life, so much in fact that I lost my footing and ended up in a far off place of magic and wizards-"

"LIAR!!!" Naruto had one foot up on the desk and a finger pointed at Kakashi.

"Hmm" he looked at the attendance chart "you're Naruto Uzumaki right?"

Naruto sat down "maybe."

"Well now that that's settled I'll take attendance, if anyone's not here raise your hand" we looked at each other wondering if he was serious "okay everyone's here. Now so I don't actually have to do anything let's get to know each other, when I point to you say your name, age, favorite color, favorite animal, car you wish you could have, person in this class you'd most like to date and why, and your hobbies. No I'm not kidding about the date thing, you'll have to get it out in the open sometime so why not now? Okay you Naruto start."

Naruto stood up "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I'm 14, my favorite colors are blue and orange, I like foxes, I wish I had a red Mazda miata, I'm already dating the perfect girl for me, Hinata Hyuuga, and I have lots of hobbies" he said that all in one breath and sat down.

"Hmm interesting" said Kakashi who was sitting on his desk "okay Hinata you're next."

Hinata was blushing brightly as she stood up "I-I'm Hin-nata Hyuuga, I'm 14, I l-like l-lavender, I l-l-like f-foxes, I w-w-wish I h-had a p-purple bug, Naruto's m-m-my boyfriend and I c-c-can't think of a h-h-hob-b-by" she sat down still blushing.

"Pineapple-head-kid, your turn."

I could tell he meant me so I stood up "I'm Shikamaru Nara, I'm 14, my favorite color is silver, I don't really have a favorite animal, I'd just like any kind of car as long as it worked, and I refuse to answer the date question-"

"You have to answer" Kakashi said.

"Fine um...Ino I guess and my hobbies are cloud watching, playing shogi or go and playing guitar or keyboards" I sat down and noticed Ino was looking at me blushing a bit. The rest of the class was just people introducing themselves.

The bell finally rang and I went to drama with Ino. We did basically the same thing as homeroom. The rest of the morning passed quickly, most classes were doing get to know you activities except P.E., Gai-sensei made us run laps. Lunch couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

I walked to the cafeteria with Naruto, Sasuke, and Chouji. We were all nursing sore muscles from PE. Before we got to the lunch room Naruto saw Kiba. He was talking to this girl, I think she was in homeroom with us but I didn't think she was in our dorm. 

Kiba put his arm around her, she blushed a bit and pretended to push his arm off, Kiba caught her hand and held it briefly before kissing it and bowing to her. She giggled and waved before walking off. Kiba waved back with a strange dreamy look in his eyes. We walked over to him. He was still remaining motionless watching the girl walk off. Naruto moved his hand in front of Kiba's face "hello Kiba, anybody in there?" he tapped Kiba's head with his fist, first lightly then a bit harder. That snapped him out of it "knock it off dobe!"

"Hey you're back! What was up with you and that girl?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm, well let's just say I think I've got a date Friday night" Kiba said sounding pleased with himself.

"What!?! Didn't you just meet that girl?" Naruto asked. We started walking towards the cafeteria.

"What can I say? The ladies love me" Kiba said.

"Kiba do you even know her name?" I asked.

"Uh I think her name's Suki or Tuki or something."

"Uh huh, Kiba you need to be less-" I stopped suddenly as I accidentally bumped into someone causing me and them to fall.

"Oof! Ow, what happened?" I sat up. I had walked into a girl carrying a bunch of papers and when she fell she dropped them all. I started picking up the papers saying "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah, are you?" She said picking up some of her papers. The others helped pick up the stuff she dropped; Chouji helped her up trying to be a gentleman.

I stood up and handed her the papers "sorry, again."

"It's fine" She said taking the papers from me "it was my fault I wasn't watching where I was going, I'm Maomi by the way, and I'm the president for the freshman class."

"Cool!" Naruto said "do you get to make rules and sign bills and eat pie and skip class and-"

"Naruto shut up!" Kiba smacked Naruto to make him shut up.

Maomi laughed "no I don't get to make rules or bills but I do get to skip class and eat pie."

"Lucky."

"Mostly I help with fundraisers and tell you guys what big important events are coming up and I also tell the principle when you guys want something or think something's unfair and stuff like that."

"Cool!" Naruto hadn't really listened, I could tell because he was having a thumb war with himself behind his back.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara, this is Naruto" he smiled, "Kiba" Kiba winked, "Sasuke" he nodded, "and Chouji" Chouji bowed took her hand and kissed it lightly saying "it's a pleasure my lady."

Maomi giggled, I was surprised at my friends daring, he was always trying to be a gentleman when he was around a girl he liked but I had never known him to do something like that.

"I have to go to a student council meeting, it was nice to meet you" Maomi smiled at Chouji and walked off. Chouji had a dreamy look on his face, he turned around and noticed we were starring at him "What?"

"Chouji did you just flirt with her?" I asked astounded.

He turned red "um no, okay so maybe I did a little."

"Well it seems Kiba isn't our only ladies man" Naruto said "nice going Chouji she's hot."

"Naruto don't talk about her like she's a piece of meat! How would you like it if I went around saying Hinata's hot? Maomi is beautiful and perfect and I know everything I need to know about her" Chouji was getting that dreamy look again.

"Oh yeah then what's her last name?" Kiba had to spoil Chouji's moment.

Chouji got redder "Shut up! I'm hungry" he said attempting to change the subject.

"When are you not hungry?" I said unhelpfully, Chouji glared at me "uh I mean let's get some food."

We ate lunch with our usual group. Then the bell rang and we went back to class. It was pretty much the same as the morning classes until geometry with Asuma.

* * *

I walked in and found a seat near the back. There were a few minutes before class started so I figured I'd take a nap. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I reopened them quickly to see a group of students clustered around me. 

"Can I help you?"

"Yes you can tell us why you are in this class" a boy with long brown hair ordered.

"I'm in this class to take geometry" I hoped this was the answer he wanted so I could get some sleep before Asuma came in.

"Ha, funny freshman, this class is only for the top sophomores and juniors. Freshmen who get have to be geniuses like Shino" Shino waved at me from across the room.

"Well maybe I am a genius."

"Don't make me laugh, you are no genius" the same long haired guy was still talking rather rudely to me, his eyes were weirding me out a little bit they were pale lavender like Hinata's but there was no warmth be hind this guys eyes.

"Neji back off" Neji looked behind him, whoever he saw obviously had more power than he did as he and the rest of his group went back to their seats. I found my defender a girl with strange blue tinted skin and hair.

"Sorry about Neji, he's kind of a jerk but once you get to know him he's not so bad. Right now he's sore because his request to switch dorms was denied. I'm Calyx I'm a sophomore."

"I'm Shikamaru I'm still a freshman, or fresh-meat as far as Neji's concerned."

"He's kind of harsh to newbies" she said sitting next to me "but how did you get in this class? Not to be rude but freshmen never get in this class."

I opened my mouth but someone answered for me "because Shikamaru's a genius, his IQ is over 200."

We looked up and saw that Asuma had come in and overheard our conversation. Thanks to him everyone was staring at me, I ignored them "Hey teach, are we going to learn anything or are you just going to tell the class my life story?"

"You've got a point. Okay everyone this is not a regular geometry class, this class is for the best and brightest so that said we aren't going to do any "get to know you" activities. For a warm-up and to show who should already quit this class I have a problem up on the board, on your mark get set go!"

Everyone took out paper and began writing down the long problem which covered half the board. I looked at it for a minute then raised my hand.

"Yes Shikamaru?" Asuma said "do you have the answer already?"

Several people looked at me. "No but I was wondering which variable are we solving for?"

Asuma looked at the board "um c I think."

"Alright" I sat there for a second then raised my hand again.

"Yes?"

"C is equal to 3" I said double checking in my head.

Asuma looked at the board then back at the class and smiled while everyone looked at me incredulously.

"Is he right?" asked Neji disbelieving.

"Yes he is right. This is why he's in this class not because his parents bought it for him, not because he knows the principle, but because he knows his stuff when it comes to math" Asuma said looking at me.

I looked around at all the faces staring at me, Calyx looked impressed, Neji seemed livid, and Shino was just looking at me "I'm not anything special sensei, but now that I've answered the problem can I go to sleep?"

Asuma chuckled "well I suppose you can if you can tell me what b in the same problem equals?"

"B is 7, can I sleep now?"

"Yes go ahead just don't snore" he said jokingly.

When class got over I felt refreshed and everyone else had massive headaches except for Calyx and Shino. They walked with me out of the main building, we talked about math, our other classes, and our other friends and somehow Sasuke's name got dragged into the conversation. Calyx knew Sasuke.

"How do you know Sasuke?"

"His brother and my brother are friends" she replied "they're in the same gang and they hang out all the time so I've met Sasuke once or twice."

"Oh."

"Shikamaru, Shino, I have to go my boyfriend is waiting for me I can see him from here" she pointed out a window at a boy with long black hair who was carving something in a tree.

Calyx headed off, Shino and I continued walking and met up with the rest of our little group. We went back to the leaf dorm and went up to our room, but something was a little off when we got there.

"Hey I'm sure I left this door locked" I said pushing it open.

We stepped inside and Naruto gasped. Our dorm was…..clean! The floor was spotless and the kitchen counters sparkled.

"What happened?" Naruto asked walking across the now visible floor.

Suddenly the door to our bedroom opened. Out came the girl Kiba had been hanging out with earlier. She was eating a bag of chips and drinking one of Sasuke's precious sodas.

"What are you doing in here? Who are you? Why is our dorm clean?" Naruto asked wildly.

"Hello boys nice to see you. I hope you don't mind that I cleaned up a bit, it kind of stunk in here so I did what I could to make it non-toxic" she said.

"Um thank you but uh who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Tsuki. Ino's little sister, I don't have a dorm so I figured I'd crash here" she sat down on the couch and put her feet up.

"Why can't you stay with Ino?" it seemed like that would be the obvious place for her to go.

"Well she doesn't exactly know I'm here or that I'm going out with Kiba" she said nonchalantly.

"Why would it matter that you're going out with Kiba?" Naruto asked confused.

"Well it would be a bit awkward seeing as…"

"Seeing as what?" Naruto was still confused although by now even Sasuke and I were curious.

"Well Kiba's kind of her ex-boyfriend" she said looking away from us.

"WHAT!!!!!!!"

* * *

**A/N: Oooh a cliffy! This is going to be interesting. Tsuki is with Kiba, who used to be with Ino, who currently likes Shikamaru, and to top it all off Tsuki is Ino's sister! Wow the story is getting confusing. If you're wondering who Calyx's bf is I'll reveal that soon enough. Hehe Chouji likes Maomi! Sorry, I had to. **

**Inner me: no you didn't.**

**Me: great here we go again, can we just skip this and have a flamer warning?**

**Inner Me: oh fine**

**_If you want a preview_**

**_You just have to review_**

**_If you want to flame me_**

**_You can't blame me_**

**_If I run around and cry_**

**_And then spit in your eye!_**


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